


Davesprite/John

by Anonymous



Category: Homestuck
Genre: M/M, Prompt Fill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-11-19
Updated: 2010-11-19
Packaged: 2017-10-16 02:07:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/167276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Captchalogue Prompt:Dave!Sprite/John<br/>He knows he should probably feel bad or something about stealing John from his past self before that Dave ever even realized he wanted him, but, fuck it, that Dave was the lucky bastard who'd never need to learn just how much living without John sucked.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Davesprite/John

n-not so sure this is exactly what you'd want, but I couldn't get the idea out of my head

It had took him over four goddamn months to catch up with that elusive bastard, and as usual Bro just took off again without saying a word. He had took the time to stitch up the damn puppet but didn't question why his own brother slash genetic son had suddenly turned half-bird and didn't stick around when he saw he was bleeding orange goddamn ectoplasm everywhere.

Dave wanted to say he was at least surprised, but if he was Bro he would have probably done the same damn thing. Striders didn't do heart-to-heart talks. Striders didn't tearfully reunite with their loving brother and puppet babysitter. Striders didn't do anything aside from being outrageously awesome all the time, and giving your little brother a hug definitely wasn't outrageously awesome.

So they had given each other the slightest of nods and the quickest of bro bunps, and then Bro tore off on his board, Lil Cal, his stuffing peeping obscenely through Bro's shitty stitch job, held under one arm.

Only when he disappeared from view, could Dave allow himself a small groan and grip the gash in his side. Warm orange ectoplasm oozed between his fingers, and Dave wondered, not for the first time, if he could die in this form. He knew alternates from fucked time-lines weren't supposed to last, and it was a fate that had lurked in the back of his mind for a while.

Fate was a pretty fucking lame reason to die, though. If through some miracle death did get his grimy unworthy hands on him, Dave planned to go down in a big ball of motherfucking sick fire.

Though that wasn't the issue. He wasn't going to die. He was so sure. Maybe.

It was still worth going to get a few unfinished things sorted out though.

He stretched his wings out and took to the skies again, looking down at the flaming river, and watched the fires spread. John would probably freak and worry about his little yellow bubbly assholes once he saw what Noir had done to his planet. Dave couldn't give a shit about the fate of some game-constructed consorts and, if he was being honest, it mostly just because he knew that they'd be fine. Whether or not consorts could die at all was kind of up in the air, and even if they did, John could probably just cry his pure angel tears or some shit and bring them all back.

Thing was, he actually would cry over their little lizard bodies, and it probably fucking would work some stupid cheesy pure-hearted magic. John probably wouldn't even question it, or think to point how lame it was, or get embarrassed to have cried over those little monsters.

That was the thing Dave liked the most about John. One of the things he'd missed.

He saw the blue spirograph gleam of the return node below, and swooped down at full-speed to enter.

GG: wait so basically, your nanna is my mom and my grandpa is your dad  
GG: and me and you are brother and sister??  
EB: yep! rose and dave are brother and sister too. makes sense when you think about it  
GG: that is  
GG: so cooooooool!! :D  
EB: heh yeah i think so too  
EB: woah what the heck  
GG: huh?  
EB: some feathery asshole's coming towards me  
GG: um what  
EB: yeah thats fucking hilarious egbert  
GG: huh????  
EB: dave's trying to get at my crosbytop aaaaa  
GG: omg dave's there? hi dave!!!  
EB: davesprite anyway. he's the future dave who's also a bird  
GG: wow i wanna see that!  
EB: of course you do no way anybody can resist these fine fluffy fucking wings  
EB: i think i'm kind of allergic actually dave  
EB: my nose is all itchy  
EB: oh shut up john thats just gay stop being gay you stupid piece of shit  
GG: oh! dave!  
GG: heheh i wish i was there to say this but i guess i'll just say it online  
GG: thanks for saving my life!! :D you're awesome <3 <3 <3  
EB: see that egbert  
EB: that is gratitude  
EB: not your fuckwitted oh hey there oh a new awesome hammer cool btw youre not the real dave  
EB: i said i was sorry man, i just worded that really badly :(  
EB: and other you said you were just messing with me anyway  
GG: hehe  
GG: are you two sitting there taking turns on the computer to talk to each other?  
GG: that is so cuuuute!!  
EB: well not so much taking turns. i mean dave just keeps batting me with his wings and taking over  
EB: uuuh okay dave is off on a rant about you calling him cute, thanks jade! i have to listen to this jackass you know  
GG: but he is cute >:(  
EB: haha he just went CAW really loud at that  
GG: lol seriously?  
GG: uh anyway im gonna have an explore and talk to these little guys  
EB: okay have fun in the medium, jade!  
GG: thanks, you and birdy dave have fun with whatever youre doing!!

\-- gardenGnostic [GG] ceased pestering ectoBiologist [EB] --

“Jade's still as much as a giant ditz as ever, then,” Dave commented, sitting down next to John. John closed up this goofy laptop and set it to one side, shuffling forward so his feet were hanging off the edge of the roof. Or balcony. Or whatever the fuck they were sitting on. Rose had made such a mess of John's place that it was becoming hard to tell. When it even looked absurdly high to the guy who flew everywhere there was no denying she'd went overboard.

“Yeah,” John said, looking him curiously up and down. He reached out to touch a wing, and then went on to play with the feathers with a dumb grin that made it hard for Dave to hide his own. John probably expected some indignant sarcastic comment and for him to slap his hand away, because the longer Dave let him get away with it, the more edgy he started to look.

“Man, gotta tell you, this whole bird things suits you,” he said, finally retracting his hands from Dave's wings and staring at him with a really weird expression, like he was trying to connect the dots and find out what was going through Dave's head, and just getting more and more woefully confused in the process.

His eyes went down and then gravitated over to the wound in Dave's side, and then at the ectoplasm forming a small pool between them.

“Dude are you...?”

“Okay? Yeah. Perfect. Motherfucking bitching as ever. Don't pay attention to that,” he said quickly. John bit his lip and continued to look at him dubiously, and Dave cupped where the ectoplasm was escaping from with a hand, more to hide it than in an attempt to stem the flow. It was pushing on relentlessly, and Dave was getting the growing sense it wouldn't make a damn difference. The pool between them expanded slowly, and the goo began to drip slowly off the edge of the platform and down into the darkness below.

Damn. He was actually losing a lot more than he'd thought. It wasn't this huge gaping wound, so he could only guess that this was fate's horrible little fingers trying to pry him out of the timeline.

Well guess what, fate, Dave Strider wants to chill with the guy he'd went through hell and back to save, he thought, so you better just sit tight and wait.

A pair of arms snaked around his waist, and a caw! jumped out of his throat in surprise. John raised an eyebrow up at him as he tied the jacket around his waist, tightening it and patting down on where the wound was gently. Dave tried not to wince, and another small caw burst out through his pursed lips . John sniggered.

“Haha, man. Those caws aren't gonna get old any time soon.”

“Shut your toothy goddamn mouth John, I have wings and crazy sprite powers and am awesome, okay? You have no idea of all the crazy shit I can pull now,” he drawled, elbowing John in the ribs, “I mean I basically could do absolutely everything anyway because I'm badass, but my awesome is just off the charts now.”

“You are such a nerd, dude. Why'd you come all the way out here to find me anyway, don't you have better things to be doing than harassing me?” John tilted his head, and then he noticed the pendant hanging around Dave's neck for the first time, the one that matched his own, “Oh, you and the real Dave ditch each other? Gah! Crap! Sorry, again. I meant the Dave from this timeline.”

“Remind me why I missed you again.”

John's eyes widened in surprise and Dave couldn't help but roll his eyes. Did John seriously think he could goddamn die and Dave wouldn't miss him, even a little? He was beginning to think this was a really fucking stupid idea. The conversation looked to be heading into pretty embarrassing territory pretty fast. He looked away from John's face and out at the endless abyss surrounding them.

“Yeah, dumpass, big surprise. You die and I'm enough of a sap to give a shit. To be totally level with you, I thought I would have missed Jade more. Who would have thought it would have fucking hurt to not have your geeky fanboy ramblings to listen to everyday? I would have thought I'd have been throwing a mini fucking party and tapdancing on your corpse just to celebrate never having to talk about Nicholas Cage ever again.”

His voice trailed off into mumbling at the end despite himself, and he looked down at the expanse of the medium stretched out below him. With his newly enhanced vision, he could just pick out the thin line of the flaming river, and he felt a sudden pang at just leaving it like that.

John was quiet, but he felt his knee knock into his tail, and their shoulders brushed together.

“What was it like? When it was just you and Rose?” John said softly.

 

4/6  
(Anonymous)  
2010-11-19 09:55 pm UTC (link)  
“Fucking exhausting having nobody to talk to but her, gotta say. There's only so many times you can be psychoanalysed before you're about ready to pull your skull apart just so she can get it over with and actually poke around your brain. And having fucking Calsprite cackling at you the whole time doesn't help either,” he grumbled, shuddering involuntarily at the thought of that thing. John smiled at him a little weakly, and Dave swallowed and looked away.

“So without Jade...and without you...yeah. It pretty much sucked, dude, that's about all you need to know.”

John threw his arms around him and buried his face in Dave's shoulder. Dave cawed again and flapped his wings indignantly.

“I am so sorry man, I am so so sorry. I shouldn'tve listened to Terezi, jesus...” His voice faded away into stammering mumbles and low sniffs. He groaned and rolled his eyes, trying to ignore that the extra pressure John was putting on him was making fresh pain rip through his entire body. He glanced down at himself. His tail was ragged at the edges, as though something was clawing and biting at him, slowly but surely consuming him whole...

The certainty of his fate loomed sickeningly over him. No amount of smartassery or trying to trick the game would work now - he was probably only still alive out of sheer stubbornness. Time was tearing him apart.

His hands hovered hesitantly over John's back, until he just rested them there.

“Jeez, chill out man. I mean seriously, get a goddamn grip. You're fine. I'm fine. We're cool,” he grunted, and gave him a quick squeeze that he hoped to god John didn't register, “Now get the fuck off me dude. This display of guylove has went on for more than long enough.”

 

John drew back and wiped his face with his wrist, offering Dave a sheepish smile. Dave curled his tail under the platform. If John saw he would flip the fuck out, and Dave couldn't ignore the growing awareness that there was absolutely fuck-all either of them could do. He didn't really want his last moments spent listening to John say that there was definitely definitely something they could do and that he should get into contact with Rose or Jade or Terezi or any of the trolls because they would know how to fix this.

Meanwhile, Dave would just listen to the countdown beating louder and louder in his head while John wasted everybody's fucking time. Time was at a premium, and that wasn't exactly an idea Dave was really used to or comfortable with.

He couldn't get a certain, stupid thought out of his head, despite the circumstances. He was pretty sure that it reflected pretty badly on his sense of priorities, and if it was any other time he would have just ignored it completely.

He figured he could let himself be less than perfectly cool for once.

“Okay. Hey, look,” he said finally, sighing, “I'm about to do something really fucking stupid that is going to make you completely freak out. Like I am fully expecting you to start babbling in a really high-pitched voice and flailing your arms about like a preteen girl at a concert for some messy-haired Disney-sponsored douchebag.”

John stared at him, his expression as totally blank and uncomprehending as Dave expected. He couldn't suppress a very small twitch of a smile.

“What are you talking about dude?”

“Just try not to flip your shit too hard and humour me with this.”

He seized John's shoulders and pressed his lips into his.

It wasn't exactly the best first kiss ever. If he was being totally honest with himself it kind of blew. Probably because John just sat there not doing anything. Probably because Dave was starting to feel sick and dizzy, and the beating in his head was getting louder and louder with every passing moment. Probably because he was going to die and here he was, only semi-human, being torn out of existence, and kissing the guy that didn't even like him back and was probably sitting there with his eyes open and panicking over whether or not he should push Dave off. It fucking sucked.

It was damn well better than not doing it at all though.

He pulled away and opened his eyes, almost dreading it. John was sitting with basically the exact expression Dave had imagined, his eyes wide and his mouth hanging open dumbly.

“So yeah,” Dave said, folding his arms. He wanted to say something else, but his head hurt too damn much and he had to grip his arms tightly to hide how badly he was shaking. He glanced down he could see the rift eating up around at his knees, starting to gnaw at the tips of his feathers. It was moving faster up his body even as he watched.

“So you...you're like...with me? You like...”

“I told you you'd be blabbering like an idiot. And yeah. Pretty much crushing on you hard up in this bitch, dude. Only took for you to die for me actually realise how bad I had it for you. Knight of Time sure has some fucking awesome timing.”

John's eyes were bulging out of his head, and Dave seriously thought he could see something blow in his brain.

“I-I'm sorry, man. You're awesome and everything but...I don't like...I mean I'm not...I -”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. Figured as much,” he said, and then pointed down at himself, “Not like this is something I can ask you to follow up on anyway, don't get your panties in a bunch about it.”

John stared blankly for a second, before he took in a breath sharply and the penny dropped.

“Wh-what? What's happening to you?”

“Alternate selves not part of a stable time loop are doomed to deletion,” he said, dully, “The prototyping bought me time, but as soon as the game decided it couldn't keep processing the awesome of this feathery asshole, I had no chance.”

“N-no way! Come on. There'll be a way around this, dude, we can work on this,” John said desperately, grabbing Dave's arm. He snorted and shook his head. The world was blurring in and out of focus, and he was struggling to keep himself upright. John didn't protest as he flopped to the side and rested against him, and Dave didn't have the energy to even attempt to seem like he wasn't enjoying it when John put his arms around him.

“You are so predictable Egbert, jesus. I knew you'd want to pull a last-minute save on me” he muttered. He curled a wing around John like a shield, “Look, all this shit was worth it. I've done my bit and played my role like a fucking academy award winner. Everything's gonna go how it's supposed to. I'd just be an extra piece on the board here, bro, only makes sense to toss me out. I've got about an hour.”

John didn't say anything, only swallowed and heaved uneven, ragged breaths. Dave closed his eyes, sick of watching the world jerk and shake around him, sick of watching all the weird, conflicting emotions play on John's face.

“It's not fair. You might not be supposed to be here but you're still my best friend and you've still done loads to help us get on the way to beating this.”

“Heh. Do me a favour, dude. Slap that ungrateful bastard for me next time he gives you and either of the other two a hard time. He doesn't know how good he's got it,” he said, “And if you ever seriously need to fuck him off, just flirt with him. That'll mess with his head badly.”

John laughed, shakily.

“Dave are you sure that...”

“Yeah, look dude, don't wanna spend my last hour talking about it being my last hour. That's so fucking uncool,” he said.

“Well...okay. What do you want to talk about then?”

“Let's just cut the melodramatic bullshit and talk how we normally would, no quest to save the world, no time travel, no meteors.. Feels like it's been a very long goddamn time since I've just talked about our weird family shit, whatever game is coming out soon...the usual. Like about all the sweet shit we'll do together when we get to meet in real life.”


End file.
